Monthly Archives: February 2015

I have been away for a while doing other projects. i am currently working on a music CD and was a little focused these last few weeks. The world has been presenting a lot of unpleasant situations both here in this country and abroad. ISIS is murdering under the guise of religion and trying its best to intimidate. As I looked at these event and more importantly listened to different commentary, it appeared to me that a basic principle was being attacked. That principle is HOPE! The news people, the radio talking heads, the “we should be worried” people all propagate hopelessness. I applaud the Jordanian nation as they said to ISIS because of the cowardly way you murdered our pilot, you have not only invigorated our hop, but also stirred our righteous indignation. What you were hoping produced the opposite effect.

Romans 8:18 – 8:25

What is hope? Hope is usually defined as a longing, a desire, or an expectation of fulfillment. It can be passive or intensely active. It can be for evil or for good. It is vitally important that we have the right hope because the Bible says that along with faith and love, it is one of the three timeless and enduring eternal values. There will never be a time in eternity when hope is not on our minds! Think about that! It is that important.

Hope is a powerful motivator. What we love, we pay attention to, , our hope will motivate us in that direction. Hope influences us either to take or not to take certain actions, depending upon what we hope for. We will generally do all that we can to make sure that what we hope for happens the way that we foresee it happening. If we hope something does not happen, we generally do what we can to see that it does not happen. Hope motivates us to move in a certain direction and to do certain things.

What if we hope for something that is beyond our immediate control? We will still pray that what we hope for will happen. If there is nothing else we can do, we will still pray. That is how powerful hope is. It will make us do things even subconsciously, bending us in a certain direction because our hope is so strong. At the very least, even if we do not pray, we will at least wish, fret, and worry about it until something is resolved. Our hopes, whether we are conscious of them or not, are constantly playing on our mind.

No matter how difficult or how desperate our situation seems, Paul says we can face it with hope.

You don’t have to be real sharp to notice that we live in a world that struggles against hopelessness. If you talk to people at all, you are going to get in a conversation with someone who is going to tell you that they are discouraged. Listen to any of the radio talk shows or watch the news and you are going to hear people who are cynical about life. They think the world is going down the tubes. And on a world scale, it seems that we go from crisis to crisis. Some here acutely remember things ISIS, just to name a few of the highest profile conflicts. And in spite of our best efforts, we know there will be more conflicts. Plus, there have been economic crises.

Right now we live in a world that is less than perfect. This world is subject to a law that states that everything in this universe is decaying. What seems fresh and new one day will someday be old and broken down. Something that is growing and vibrant will someday shrivel up and die. To use Paul’s language, this world is in “bondage to decay.” But it wasn’t always this way though. In the early days of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, we see the sin of Adam and Eve caused several things to happen that were previously nonexistent.

So Paul tells us that creation is frustrated and it even groans for the day of redemption. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Now we groan and become frustrated because of evil in the world. We long to once and for all time rid the world of evil. We long for the time where the world will be free of evil and corruption.

Hope is not just an optimistic and positive outlook but also the drive to persevere, to endure whatever comes, to push us forward. Only the hopeful will do this. The hopeless will give up. For the Christian, there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. It is true that we will endure suffering in our lives. Hopefully it is for Christ and not our own foolishness. But the great news is we have a hope even though we suffer.
We as Christ followers have hope because we are God’s adopted children. We can look forward to the blessings ahead. We have an inheritance that is not of this world. We know for certain that it will not always be like this, something better is coming, we will be made new!

And now we come to one of my favorite verses: Romans 8:28 – And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

That hope gives us the ability to turn our eyes away from our pain to God’s glory. The good news for those who are in Christ Jesus is that YOU ALWAYS HAVE HOPE. Through Jesus we have hope. Hope of better things to come. We can know even though this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, things are going to get better for those who follow Christ.